John Gray High School hosts Spanish Quiz

By contributor

On Wednesday the 6^th of April, the John Gray High School’s Spanish Department hosted its 3^rd Spanish Quiz Competition spearheaded by the Subject Leader of Spanish, Mrs. Kerita Levermore-Stewart. This was held in the school’s gymnasium. The ambience was the quintessence of elegance; graced with an enthusiastic, distinguished, and outstanding audience, which included our Director of DES Mr. Mark Ray and other members of the Ministry of Education, our PTA president Ms. Marva Reid, sponsors, teachers, students, panelists: Ms. Nicole Ebanks, Ms. Erica Gordon, Mrs. Marsha Allan, Mrs. Shelleann Bent- Christian, Mr. Ralston Chamber, Mrs. Leonora Lalor- Brown and Ms. Bicola Perry, competing teams, the teachers of the Spanish Department and community members who added the entertainment flavor, spiced with authentic Latin rhythmic music and dance.

The morning commenced with devotions for guidance from our Heavenly Father. We are grateful for what He has done in giving us another World Class event! Our students at John Gray are quite resilient and could not settle with the academic year 2021/ 2022 ending without a Spanish Quiz Competition. Pursuant to this fact, they studied and worked assiduously with the teachers of Spanish, Mrs. C. Watson, Mrs. J. Jordan, Ms. K. D’Aguilar and Mrs. K. Levermore- Stewart, to make the KS4 Spanish Quiz a spectacular and enthralling competition.

The euphoria of success had fueled the desire to win this competition and our students at John Gray were on display showcasing their abilities with discipline, excellence and pride. Well done students! We applaud each of you for being dedicated. You are all champions! The winners of the competition were our diligent year 10 students who won at the tie breaker round. The winners are: Raldayne Thomas, Jordan McDonald, Kaniya James, Aijulon Thomas, Neva Evans, Marissa Wright, Dylan Levy (who was ill but still managed to join the quiz training on Teams), Sumayyah Gordon and Jeam Mojica Esclava- congratulations! It was a proud moment! The teams were not made up of only native speakers but a fair balance of native and non- native speakers who are passionate about sharing and learning the Spanish language. “This made the competition far more interesting and showed that teaching and learning is not myopic; assessing our students’ abilities can be done in a friendly yet competitive way” Levermore- Stewart mentioned in her opening speech. The motivational speaker stated; “Maybe if I had teachers like you ladies in the Spanish Department who have placed emphasis on making learning fun and innovative, I would have been an outstanding student of Spanish”. “Great things are happening at John Gray High School, as we continue to exemplify the definition of World Class.” – Levermore- Stewart confirmed.

Many thanks to everyone who made the event the success it truly was. Special mention to Mr. Kirkland Lawrence (Teacher of Industrial Technology- Electrical and electronics) who worked on our buzzer when it stopped working just a few minutes before the quiz started. This speaks to the supportive team we have at John Gray High School. To the many other magnificent members of staff at John Gray who ensured that they gave of their best to help in one way or another. Thank you! #IamJohnGray!

To the many sponsors and companies, thank you for all your kind gifts! Sponsors include but are not limited to: Cayman National Bank, Precious Gems Pre- School, Foster’s, Kirk Home Center, Composed Media, Monograms & more Ltd, The Cake Studio, The Consulate of Spain, 3D Imprint, Crown Events Rentals & Services Ltd and General Maintenance.